Keiretsu Economy — New Economy?: Japan’s Multinational Enterprises From A Postmodern Perspective

Keiretsu Economy – New Economy? Keiretsu Economy – New Economy? Japan’s Multinational Enterprises from a Postmodern Perspective Rainer Kensy Foreword by Seiichi Mitani # Rainer Kensy 2001 Foreword # Seiichi Mitani 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-92175-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42497-9 ISBN 978-0-333-98568-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780333985687 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kensy, Rainer Keiretsu economy – new economy? : Japan’s multinational enterprises from a postmodern perspective / by Rainer Kensy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. International business enterprises – Japan. 2. Japan – Foreign economic relations. I. Title. HD2907 .K44 2000 338.80 8952–dc 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Typeset in Great Britain by Aarontype Limited, Easton, Bristol 00–048295 Contents List of Tables ix List of Figures x Foreword by Seiichi Mitani xi Preface xii xv List of Abbreviations PART I THE FRAMEWORK 1 Introduction I II III IV 3 Terminology 3 Postmodern thought categories 3 Japanese economic structures 4 Japanese multinational enterprises 5 The business revolution called New Economy 7 Objectives 7 Relevance of the Research 8 The postmodern discussion or: a discussion of ‘the postmodern’ 8 Japan as the focus of attention 10 The multinational enterprise as a research subject 14 Previous research 15 Demarcation Lines 16 The terms ‘postmodernism’/‘postmodern’/‘postmodernity’ 17 The view taken of Japan 17 Methodological limitations 18 Structure of Hypotheses 20 Basic approach 20 Hypothesis of the postmodern economic model 21 v vi Contents V Hypothesis of Japan’s postmodernity 22 Structuring the task 23 Initial Summary: modus operandi 24 PART II ECONOMICS AND THE POSTMODERN 2 Postmodern Principles 31 I Overview 31 II Approaches to the Postmodern 32 The genealogy of postmodernism 32 Architecture and postmodernism 34 Postmodern infiltrat